


Doctor Who - The true meaning of the universe

by FalconPoof



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Adventure, Children, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, Gen, Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind., Melancholy, Original Character(s), Original Doctor - Freeform, Outer Space, Parentless Child, Short, Short One Shot, Snow, Stars, The beauty of time and space, The wonders of the universe, Time Travel, universe - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 02:33:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30132651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FalconPoof/pseuds/FalconPoof
Summary: A young boy comes across a mysterious police box out in the middle of an alleyway. Who could've known the man inside could help show him the true meaning of the universe?





	Doctor Who - The true meaning of the universe

**Author's Note:**

> The Doctor in this story is written to be any Doctor, all up to the reader's preferences! While he is a special, original Doctor in my mind, he's written to be any one you may prefer the most. Well, I suppose except Jodie as I used male pronouns, but I hope you enjoy nonetheless! If I had to place this doctor cronologically, I'd probably say a regeneration after all the current main cast of Doctors
> 
> I originally wrote this as a kind of practice for action description between talking, and to practice duologues between two different characters. I've been watching a lot of Doctor Who again recently, and I must say, Capaldi is definitely still my favourite.

Knock, knock, knock...

"Who on Earth could that be at this hour?" There was no hint of any particular annoyance, although he was puzzled nonetheless at the unusual knocking. "Who knocks on a blue police box in the middle of the night?"

Tightly grasping one of the many different switches, a quick flick disabled the internal lights, throwing the ship into complete darkness. Curiosity was a very powerful feeling within him, acting as one of his greatest qualities. Although, most of the time, brought him into a lot of trouble.

Even as he leaned as far as he could, the fogged-up windows of the T.A.R.D.I.S gave no clues to the mysterious person behind the door; he couldn't even see a silhouette.

"Hello? Is anybody there?" He asked, with an ear pressed against the door.

No answer.

Slowly, he pulled the white door open, only to be met with... nothing. Leaning out of the box, nothing to the left, nothing to the right.

"Good evening, sir!" Said a voice from below with innocent enthusiasm.

"Oh. Hello, little one." Being quite tall, he hadn't noticed the sudden child before him. Giving another glance to the stars, he looked back down in confusion. "What are you doing so late at night? Why are you knocking on a weird blue box in the middle of an alleyway?"

"The lights were on." The young boy said, incredibly casual as if it was the most natural thing in the universe.

"Didn't your parents ever teach you to not wander about at night and approach weird boxes with weird men inside?" 

"I don't have parents." The boy replied sheepishly, fidgeting with the cuffs of his sleeve.

"Oh... I'm terribly sorry to hear that." He was certainly taken off-guard, definitely should be more careful in the future. Snow fell into the boy's hair, the clear shudder in his breathing showed an obvious conclusion. Switches flipped in his mind, and a new idea popped into his head. "Hold on, little one. I wanna show you something." He shut the door, before quickly turning back around and peeking his head through for a moment. "Wait here."

Clapping his hands together, a wide grin spread across his cheeks, hopping back over to the light switch. With a skip and a swipe of the arm, light flooded the room once more, really showing the whole "bigger on the inside" aspect.

"Come in!" He yelled across the T.A.R.D.I.S, leaning his back against the control deck. With a small click, the door opened slowly, and in came the tiny figure of the boy, closing the door behind him. With a smile, he let out an enthusiastic "What do you think?"

"Bigger... on the inside?" The boy replied, in awe at the absolute disaster of natural laws this box created.

"I know, right?" His arms stretched out to the sides as if presenting the interior of a large mansion. With another clap of his hands together, he continued. "Oh, right, ignoring that, what's your name, kid?"

"Allen, sir. Eleven years old." Allen answered, stepping forward, looking around at the new, bizarre environment he found himself in.

"Allen, Allen... A wonderful name, a great name... Also, quit with the "sir" thing, it doesn't fit me. I'm no soldier." He bounced his back off of the control centre, happily shaking his arms about as he kneeled to meet the kid's height. "My name is the Doctor, nice to meet you, Allen." Shaking hands with the boy, perhaps a little too hard for an eleven-year-old, the Doctor quickly bounced back up, twirling to face the controls again. "My name is the Doctor, and I think I have something you'd like to see..."

"The Doctor isn't a real name, what's your real, real name?" Allen asked, walking to sit down in one of the many chairs positioned too far from the actual controls.

"I'm sure some few thousand years ago neither was "Allen" but I'm not asking any questions, am I? Come on, catch up." The Doctor replied, moving around the console and flipping a bunch of unknown levers and pressing buttons. Suddenly, the whole interior began to shake, and a croaking mechanical sound rang out from the console, a familiar sound of leaving the brakes on. "Hang on tight! There might a little bit of... turbulence. Wind resistance. Maybe a hole will rip through reality any moment now. Don't worry about it." Allen took a tight grasp of the chair, the violent shaking of the machine shuffling him a little. "It's just into space, so I doubt we'll find any danger there..." The Doctor muttered under his breath.

The mechanical roars and shakes reached their peak, before slowing down to a stop, the destination reached. "Easy there, old girl!" The Doctor yelled as the T.A.R.D.I.S made its last croak. "Hey, I have a question for you." Jumping over all the steps to the white doors of the T.A.R.D.I.S, he gestured Allen over, who hopped from atop his seat. As the boy approached, the Doctor let off a soft smirk. "Have you ever wanted to be an astronaut?"

Allen tilted his head, reaching the Doctor and the imposing white doors. "Not really... I always just wanted to be a nurse."

"Ah..." The Doctor's smile fell to slight disappointment but stayed enthusiastic all the same. "Human beings, so difficult to please. Though, a nurse is a respectable position too!"

Pushing open the door, Allen's mouth fell agape at the sight he'd been presented with. Stars, some dying. Empty space. The view of the entire Earth beneath them. Galaxies far in the distance. The most beautiful sight so many people will never get to experience in their lifetime.

"Space..." Allen spoke, completely in awe. "But... I was told you'd run out of breath in space?"

"Oxygenated airfield... It completely surrounds us, you could even go outside of this box. Though, I do very much advise against that." The Doctor nudged over to the doors, letting his legs sit outside the box as he sat on the edge. Allen looked out at the stars, his eyes shining at the view. Tapping his arm, the Doctor continued. "Hey, get this, we're five hundred years in the future." He said with a smile. "With a slight binary margin of error of about... two thousand years, I'd say." He said, much quieter. "Time travel! It's one hell of a thing."

"So... bright..." The stars filled his vision throughout the depths of empty space.

"Just be thankful you're not looking at the sun. Of course, this box keeps us safe from it's... incredibly dangerous rays, but I dread to see what it would do to human eyes up close." The Doctor replied, looking out with him.

The two sat there in silence, watching all the stars from the safe space of the little T.A.R.D.I.S doorway. The infinite void of space stretched out before them. "Maybe if you don't understand it all right now, in that tiny little brain of yours, you might when you're older. Time passes a bit weirder when you're a man like me."

The silence continued, Allen sitting down beside the Doctor with his legs still inside. No sound, no nothing. "You know... Do you ever listen to the wind or the rustling of leaves?" The Doctor asked, breaking the silence again. "Every soft breeze, every little rustle of a leaf..." Looking over to Allen, he put a finger on the tip of the boy's nose. "It's the sound of the universe saying that it believes in you. That it loves you. That no matter what, you will never be alone. The power of the universe is always by your side, you just have to treat it nicely." The Doctor looked back out into space, moving his arm to point at all the stars. "You know those stars? They're the eyes of the universe, looking over you. Each one a fair distance away from each other, several thousand lightyears, so that they can view your life at several different points at once." The Doctor smiled softly, swinging his legs back and forth. "One star may see you at your worst point, while another will see later in the future when everything is okay again. The stars will always protect you. As a man who has lived a very... long life, I can assure you, they've always protected me." He flashed a bright, reassuring smile over at Allen, before promptly jumping back up onto the T.A.R.D.I.S floor. "I always wanted to do that..." He whispered under his breath.

"Next stop, back home." The Doctor said, shutting the door and marching over to the control console. "What year was it again? When you travel so often, it gets a little jumbled up inside." He put a finger to the side of his head, spinning it in a circular gesture.

"Oh. Uhm... 2022. December 12th." Allen replied, nervous about getting it wrong.

"That sounds about right! Hang on tight, she's gonna go strong again!" The Doctor yelled, flipping switches as he ran around the console. Allen ran to the seats as fast as he could, tightly grasping onto the seats.

As the mechanical croaking roared out, a wide smile of excitement spread across his face.

"Next stop, Earth! 2022 AD! Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, whatever you want, please keep all luggage safely bolted to the ground as we are coming in for a hard landing! Haha!" The Doctor sounded ecstatic as he pulled the final lever. His arm swung in a circle, and the T.A.R.D.I.S began to shake.

"Here we go~!"

**Author's Note:**

> Never be cruel, never be cowardly. And never ever eat pears! Remember - hate is always foolish... and love, is always wise. Always try to be nice and never fail to be kind. You mustn't tell anybody your name. No-one would understand it anyway. Except... children, Chidren can hear it. Sometimes - if their hearts are in the right place, and the stars are too, children can hear your name.
> 
> Laugh hard. Run Fast, Be kind.


End file.
